Index



(No Model.) Y

J. E. HBPPBNST-ALL.

5 INDEX.

No. 495,155. '1155555555155 l11, 1895.

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' UNrrnn STATES PATENT Ormes.

JAMES EDVARD HEPPENSTALL, OF LOCKHART, TEXAS.

INDEX.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters'Patent No. 495,155, dated April 11, 1893.

Application iiled May 28,1891. Serial No. 394,392. (No model.) i

To all whom it may concer-17,:

Be it known that I, JAMES EDWARD HEP- PENSTALL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lockhart,in the county of Caldwell and State of Texas, have invented a new and useful Index, of which the following is a speciication.

This invention relates toindexing books; and the same consists in an improved method of indexing books of reference, and more especially city and county records, and the means for carrying over from one line to another where several indexes are to be set opposite one name.

The accompanying drawings illustrate in Figure 1 pages 60 and 61 of one form of my improved index, being the first two pages under 0; and in Fig. 2 pages 376 and 377 of a slightly different t'orm of my improved index, being the first two pages under M.

It is well known that in indexing, especiallyin county records, it is desirable to have a complete double setof indexes, one of the names of the grantors, or those persons who draw or execute the papers, transfers, &c.; and the other of the names of the grantees, or those persons in whose favor such papers are drawn. Heretofore it has been the practice to provide two complete and independent indexes, or one doubleindex in which the names of grantors and grantees are written in different colored inks, or some other equally complicated means for distinguishing the grantors from the grantees.

My invention contemplates the provision of means whereby the confusion incident to the present methods may be avoided, the essential feature of the improvement being that the names of grantors and grantees are distinguished unmistakably by the pages upon which the indexed names are written; those, of the grantors being indexed upon the even and those of the grantees upon the odd pages of the same book, under the same letters, headings, &c., and in some cases upon the same lines without rewriting the name which is indexed.

It is also well known that in indexing as in county records, the name of certain persons who perhaps deal heavily in real estate and give and receive a large number of deeds, re-

quire so much space in an index that one line, or the space usually allotted to one name, is insufficient for all of the entries which belong thereto. If the succeeding line of the index is blank and such overflowing records can be continued there-upon, no serious confusion is created, but if, such succeeding lines having been filled previously, itis necessary to continue the record upon another page, which must be indexed under the nainein question, or at least to continue thelsame Lupon alower line of the same page, great inconvenience is experienced in discovering the contination; the only guide ordinarily provided for the lassistance of the Searcher being the direction, at the end of a line, ythat the record is f continued below, leaving the Searcher to discover the location of such continuation. The presentinvention has for its object to avoid thisv difficulty by consecutively numbering the lines, and when one line is filled referring directly` by number to the line occupied-by the continuation.y

Further objects and advantages of my invention will appear in the following description and the novel features thereof will be particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the drawings: Fig. 1 represents two opposite pages, respectively numbered 60 and 61, of anl index book, andrshowing the ruling, headings, dac., of the same, upon each of which is arranged an independent column of indexed names; those names upon one page being of grantors, and those upon the oppositepage of grantees. Fig. 2 shows the ruling and headings of two opposite pages upon which the indexed names appear but f once, the records or entries connected therewith and. relating thereto being carried entirely across the two pages, thereby giving more space for records attached to each name and avoiding the necessity of rewriting the indexed name where the records are too numerous to be arranged upon one line, and where one name appears both as grantor and grantee; the location (as to page) of the paper recorded being thev means 0f distinguishing grantors from the grantees.

The pages of the book are numbered consecutively, those illustrated in Fig. 1 being 60 and 61 and those in Fig. 2 being 376 and 377;

IOO

the pages are headed or lettered in groups, a certain number of pages being classified under A, a certain number under B, and so on throughout the alphabet; and the lines upon the pages under each letter are numbered consecutively. 1

I have illustrated two methods of numbering the lines. In Fig. 1, the lines upon the pages under a certain letter begin with a unit in each case, so that the first line underA will be numbered one, those under B with one, and so on. Pages 60 and 61 are the first two pages under C, as will be seen by reference to the numberings of the lines indicated in the spaces N at the left margin of each page.

In Fig. 2 the lines upon the pages under certain letters are numbered in groups as in Fig. 1,with the differencethatone-hundred numerals are allotted to each letter whereby the lines underA begin with one-hundred and one, those under B,with two-hundred and one and so on, those under M beginning with thirteen-hundred and one, as shown'in said Fig. 2.

Each method has its advantages,but either may be used with either form of index shown and described: the same principle, that of numbering all the lines Yupon the pages under particular letters, consecutively in groups, being common in and forming the essentialv features of both methods.

VIn Fig. 2 but one numbering of the lines for two opposite pages is sufficient, in Fig. `1, corresponding lines upon opposite pages are similarly numbered.

The pages marked F in the drawings are those uponwhich the names of grantors are indexed, and the pages marked T are those upon which the names of the grantees are indexed, the words from and to following the index letters at the heads of such pages, respectively.

Referring to Fig. 1, the first entry upon page 60 indicates that a quit claim deed (designated by the letters Q. C. D.) given in the year 1840, passed from H. A. R. Cook to Joseph Magee and that the same is recorded upon page 302 of record book F. Upon page 61 Cooks name again appears as a grantee, in which a deed of trust passes to him from Maddox. Also on line 4, page 60, Cody is indexed as a grantor, having given to Cameron a quit claim deed which is recorded upon page 275 of book E, and upon line 5 of page 61, the same transfer is entered, the name of the grantee Cameron being indexed.

Referring now to Fig. 2, upon page 376, line 1301 Maddox is indexed as a grantor of a release in 1838, to S. S. Alexander, the same being recorded upon page 100, book 2, and lower upon the same page, line 1307, Maddox is again indexed as a grantor to Clark and to Cook. But opposite the last entry, (upon page 377) is found au entry, which being placed upon the grantee page, shows that in 1852 a release passed to Maddox (grantee) from Mark Queer (grantor) the vsaine being recorded upon page 28, book C. Also line 1302, Magee is grantor to Campbell and Bishop, and grantee from Cook, Lane and Cameron, respectively.

The letter O designates the spaces for the names of grantors, E the spaces for names of grantees, P the spaces for names of papers recorded, Y the'spaces for dates (years) in which the papers were drawn, and I the spaces for the references to the record books, and thepages thereof.

0n the second line of Fig. 2 it will be seen that the entries indexed under the name of Joseph Magee occupy the entire line of the two pages, the first two entries designating papers emanating from this person, and the next three entries, papers passing to him; and from this line the entries are carried two lines below where is recorded a release given to Joseph Magee by L. M. Bishop in 1847. In Fig. l, however', the first entry on page 60 is a deed passing from Mr. Cook, from which the record skips to the fourth line of page 6l where is recorded a deed of trust given to Mr. Cook by K. T. Maddox. It will thus be seen that with the form illustrated in Fig. 1 it is necessary to rewrite the name indexed whenever he changes from grantor to grantee, whereas in the form shown in Fig. 2 the entries can continue entirely yacross the two pages, as in the case of Mr.

Magee on the second line, provided they occur in the proper order. If not, the entry will be similar to that on the seventh line of this figure which is given to Mr. Maddox. In this 4 case he gave a release in 1852 to B. L. Clark which was recorded on page 27 of book C and whichis indexed on the from or even page; and the following day of the same year Mr.

i Maddox received a release fronrMark Queer which was recorded on the next page of the same book (28 C). The next year Mr. Maddox gave a deed of trust to Mr. Cook which was recorded on page 290 of book A, as seen, fromA which the indexing under this name (Maddox) is continued to line 1350 in a manner described below. It will be further observed that the positions of the names of grantor() and grantee E are changed on the different pages of one book, as seen by the lettering on the lower lines of each figure. Thus the last entry on page 376 indicates a release passing from Mr. Medaris to Mr.

Clark and recorded on page 11 of book G, in

which case the former is the grantor and the latter thegrantee; whereas, had this entry been made on this line of page 377, it would have indicated that this release passed from Mr. Clark to Mr. Medaris. Hence the Searcher when using theforrn illustrated in Fig. 1 det termines whether the name in the first column is that of the grantor or grantee by whether it occurs ou the page F or the page T; whereas in the form illustrated in Fig. 2 where the names indexed are all on the page F, he determines whether the paper indexed passes IOO IIL;

from or to such name by the location of the record itsel` either upon the page F or upon the page T.

I have said above that I have devised an improved means for carrying from one line to another below, and in the two figures of the drawings I have shown two forms of such means, although it will be understood that these forms are not necessarily applicable to those particular forms of indexes to which they are applied in the drawings. That is to say,in a narrow vertical column N preceding the names which are indexed, I number the lines of the book. In Fig. 1 this numbering commences atl with each letter; while in Fig. 2 I allo'w one hundred lines for each letter, and the tirst page of M therefore commences with 1301. In largevindexes I might allow a thousand lines to each letter, or even more; but obviously the numbering could not run consecutively through the lines of the entire book for the reason that when all the lines of a certain letter become filled and new pages have to be inserted under this letter, the lines of such added pages could not be numbered. At the right hand end of each cross line is another narrow vertical column C which I call the continuation column, and the vertical space in this column opposite each name indexed is divided into two portionsfand t. Thus far my improved means of carrying from one line to another are ap; plicable to both forms of index as illustrated. The dissimilarity consists in providing an additional number column N on page 61 and an additional continuation column C on page 60, these additional columns being necessary in the construction shown in Fig. 1 although not necessary in that shown in Fig. 2. The first entry in Fig. 1 is to Mr. Cook on line 1 of page 60, and the next to this man is on line 4: of page 61 but as he is a grantor in the former entry and in the latter a grantee, these entries have no connection. In this figure and by this arrangement there are practically two independent books bound together-one being the index of grantors and voccupying the even pages, and the other the index of grantees and occupying the odd pages; and these books have no vconnection except that their index pages are adjacent. On line 3 of page 61 occurs Mr. Clark as a grantee, which line being filled the number 7 is placed in the space t of the column C to indicate the line in that book (that is of the grantee pages) under that letter to which continuation is made, and on line 7 below will be found further entries under this name, the ligure 3 being placed in the space f of this line to indicate from what line the continuation was made. In the same manner Mr. Cody appears on line 4 of page 60, and next on line 6 of page 61 without a reference, but his name will be found below on line 21 of the odd pages as indicated by the numeral in the column C of the line 6. In Fig. 2 line 1301 is continued to line 1307, and the latter to line 1350 which will be some pages subsequent. It will be noticed that in this instance the continuation is from an entry on an even page to another on an even page; and so also is the line 1302 continued from an entry on the odd page to another on the same page-but this is not necessary in this construction of my invention. As the indexed names appear but once to the two pages, they are both the equivalent of one page above in this respect and the searcherneed only look down a single continuation column for the next line sought. On very broad pages in the construction shown in Fig. 2 the numbers in the column N will be so remote from the column C that I sometimes duplicate them near the latter column as shown on the line 1301.

The ruling across each page of the book illustrated in Fig. 1 divides the page into lines, each of which is subdivided as follows: first, a space N for the number of the line, next a name space for thename of a person indexed andfor which name the Searcher is looking, then a number of spaces for the names of the other parties to the negotiation or transfer, above each of which spaces are smaller spaces for the paper, the year, and the index, and finally at the end of the line a space C for the continuation, which space is divided vertically into portions f and t respectively the numbers of the lines from and to which the continuation of the record extends. On the even pages F of the book the name space is lettered O because it receives the grantors name, whereas on` the odd pages T this space is lettered E because it receives the grantees name. Conversely the spaces for the other parties are oppositely lettered,'according to which name is'to be placed therein. The ruling in Fig. 2 is precisely similar for two contiguous pages 376 and 377 as for a single page of Fig. 1, except that it of course affords a greater number of spaces for the names of the parties other than those indexed. On the last line of lthis igure it will be seen that the name space is lettered O and the next space is lettered E. This is proper because the paper recorded is a release passing from Mr. Medaris to Mr. Clark; whereas, in line 1304 the name space is lettered E and the space containing the other partys name is lettered O, because the paper recorded is a release passing to Mr. Magee from Mr. Bishop. In other words, in Fig. 2 the name spaces IOO IIO

may contain the names of both the grantors and the grantees, Whereas in Fig. 1 the grantors are indexed on the even pages F and the grantees on the odd pages T. In the same manner the complementary spaces for thel names of the other parties are differently lettered on the different pages. The lettering for the name space of line 1302 is correct, because Mr. Magee is a grantor to Mr. Campbell and Mr. Bishop, and afterward a grantee from Mr. Cook, Mr. Lane, and Mr. Cameron. Considerable change may be m'ade in the ruling of these pages withoutdeparting from the spirit of my invention. For instance, the words in brackets atthe tops of the pages may be and preferably are omitted, the index letters may or may not be used as desired, also the page numbers, the pages are of course much larger than shown and contain a greater number of lines either longitudinally or transversely, the relative distances of these lines may be changed at Will, different colored inks may be used, and other alterations and changes adopted which need not be here mentioned.

What is claimed as new is l. An index book having its pages numbered consecutively and arranged in groups under index letters, and having the lines upon the pages under each index letter numbered consecutively, substantially as specified.

2. An index book having its pages numbered consecutively, ruled and grouped under index letters, the horizontal lines upon the pages being numbered consecutively with the lines in different groups provided with independent series of n umerals, substantially as specified.

3. An index book having its pages numbered consecutively, ruled and grouped under index letters, the horizontal lines being numbered consecutively and each line being provided With marginal contiguous spaces, f and t, to receive, respectively, the reference numerals of lines from and to which the record or entry is extended, substantially as specified.

4. An index book having its pages arranged in duplicate and ruled to provide columns for indexed names and spaces for the recordS, the identification of the indexed names being determined by the page upon which the respectivc records appear, substantially as specified.

5. An index book having pairs of opposite pages each provided with columns for the indexed names and spaces for records, the entries upon one page of each pair being indexed under the names of grantors and the entries upon the opposite page of each pair being indexed under the names of grantees, substantially as specified.

6. An index book of the class described, having its pages headed, indexed and ruled and its lines numbered in duplicate, whereby the records may be indexed upon one page under the names of one party and upon the opposite page under the names of the other party to a transfer, substantially as specified.

'7. An index book having-its pages headed, indexed and ruled to provide naine columns O and E, and subdivisions or spacesP, Y and I, substantially as speciiied.

8. An index book having pages F and T, ruled to provide columns O E, for names of grantors and grantees, respectively, and record spaces E and O which are subdivided to form spaces P, Y and l, substantially as specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

JAMES EDWARD HEPIENSTALL.

Witnesses:

W. R. SMITH, J. S. BRQWNE. 

